Cooking appliances, such as, e.g., cooktops (also known as hobs) or ranges (also known as stoves), generally include one or more heated portions for heating or cooking food items within a cooking utensil placed on the heated portion. The heated portions utilize one or more heating sources to output heat, which is transferred to the cooking utensil and thereby to any food item or items within the cooking utensil. Typically, an electronic controller or other control mechanism, such as a thermo-mechanical electrical switch (also known as an infinite switch), regulates the heat output of the heating source selected by a user of the cooking appliance, e.g., by turning a knob or interacting with a touch-sensitive control panel. For example, the control mechanism may cycle the heating source between an activated or on state and a substantially deactivated or off state such that the average heat output approximates the user-selected heat output. This cycling action may have a period of several seconds, as is typically the case when relays are employed, or might take place on each half-cycle of an AC waveform, which is possible with semiconductor switching devices.
However, the transfer of heat to the cooking utensil and/or food items may cause the food items or cooking utensil to overheat or otherwise cause unwanted and/or unsafe conditions on the cooktop. Although the cooking appliance usually has features for regulating the heat output of the heating source as described above, setting the heat output to a high level can cause the cooking utensil, and its contents, to reach excessively high temperatures. As an example, a high heat output setting may cause a frying pan or skillet containing only a thin layer of cooking oil to quickly rise in temperature because the thermal mass of the cooking utensil and cooking oil is small. In some cases, the temperature may rise such that the cooking oil self-ignites. On the other hand, a high heat output setting typically does not lead to dangerous conditions for large food loads, e.g., a pot filled with water, because the large thermal mass slows the rate at which the cooking utensil and food heat up and, in this particular example, because water is a self-temperature-regulating compound and is not a self-igniting chemical compound. Therefore, cooking performance of the cooking appliance may be negatively impacted if the appliance regulates every use of a high heat output setting regardless of the temperature reached by the cooking utensil and/or its contents.
Accordingly, a cooking appliance with features for selectively limiting a maximum temperature reached by a cooking utensil placed on a heating source of the cooking appliance without impacting the performance of the cooking appliance during other cooking operations would be useful. Methods for operating a cooking appliance to selectively limit a maximum temperature reached by a cooking utensil placed on a heating source of the cooking appliance without impacting the performance of the cooking appliance during other cooking operations also would be beneficial. In particular, an appliance and its associated methods that limits a maximum temperature reached by a lightly-loaded cooking utensil containing highly combustible foods (e.g., cooking oil, grease, and bacon) but does not limit the heat output to a heavily-loaded cooking utensil containing non-combustible foods (e.g., water or a water-based sauce) would be advantageous.